The deals agreed to pay Proactive 20 per cent commission but, since
Stretford left the firm in acrimony in October 2008, no further
commission payments have been made.

Proactive's lawyers claim that, under the terms of the contract
Stretford signed with the Rooneys while he was working for the firm,
Proactive is still due the payments - now amounting to a minimum of
£4.3 million.

Rooney agreed when asked by Ian Mill QC, acting for Proactive, if Stretford had helped to make him a "very wealthy young man".

Asked about the money he paid, Rooney replied: "It was for everyday
life. Obviously there's a lot of stuff that needs to be done and it
would be more or less impossible for me and my wife to do that."

Asked if his agent did not tell him to get independent legal advice
before signing multi-million pound sponsorship agreements, Rooney said
he could not remember.

The footballer also agreed he sided with Stretford after his agent
was dismissed from his job, charged with misconduct and banned as
acting as a football agent by the Football Association.

Rooney, 24, facing a courtroom packed with rows of pin-striped
lawyers and crammed with around 30 members of the press, gave single
word answers of "yes" to the initial questions from the barrister.

His parents, Wayne senior and Jeanette sat alongside Stretford and a
five-strong legal team, listening to the evidence from the witness in a
courtroom littered with volumes of legal files and lined with
leather-bound law books.

Mr Mill asked Rooney again what 'commercial assistance' his agent gave him after he parted company with Proactive.

'My football career and football stuff has to come first,' Rooney
said. 'Then obviously when I have got days when I have got my
commercial stuff they make sure everything is done right and set up
properly and day-to-day life with my wife and child, stuff that's in
the newspapers, they deal with all that.'

Mr Mill asked the player to recall that his agent had been
investigated by the FA in 2008 and things "did not go well" for Mr
Stretford as he was found guilty of a number of misconduct charges.

Mr Mill reminded the witness his agent appealed against the decision
by the FA - but his appeal was rejected. 'And doubtless he still
maintained his innocence?' Mr Mill asked.

Mr Mill told Rooney, at around the same time the FA investigated Mr
Stretford, his employers Proactive terminated his contract. 'Doubtless
he said he felt he had been treated very badly?' Mr Mill said. 'He told
you his side of the story and you accepted it?'

'Yes,' Rooney again replied.

'After he left Proactive, you continued to believe and put your trust in Mr Stretford?' Mr Mill asked. 'Yes,' the witness said.

Mr Mill continued: 'You felt he had negotiated very good contracts
for you with both Everton and Manchester United and first class
sponsors. He had helped make you a very wealthy young man and you were
extremely grateful to him.'

Rooney agreed he felt Mr Stretford should get the £4.3 million in
commission payments, not Proactive, and that the firm had treated his
agent badly.

'What if the court was to find Mr Stretford had not been telling you
the truth?' Mr Mill said. He asked Rooney to 'suppose' that the court
was to find the FA was justified in banning Mr Stretford and right to
dismiss his appeal, and that Proactive was fully justified in
dismissing him from his job.

'If that was the case, would that in any way be likely to affect
your attitude to whether or not Mr Stretford should get commission from
you?' he asked.'Er, has that actually happened?' Rooney replied.

A picture emerged of Rooney being extremely loyal to Mr Stretford -
with the 24-year-old insisting he wanted him to continue providing
representation.

The striker told the hearing he wanted Mr Stretford involved in
discussion with Manchester United about renewing his playing contract,
which expires in 2012.

Rooney said he did not believe Proactive could take care of him after Mr Stretford left.
Mr Mill said the only reason Proactive was not able to provide services for Rooney was because the star did not want it to.

'As I said before, I wanted Mr Stretford to look after me,' said the
striker He added: 'I didn't think Proactive could provide the services.
Nobody from Proactive called me to say 'we can provide the services for
you'.'

Question time: Wayne Rooney will provide evidence in court today over his involvement with football agent Paul Stretford

That was because Rooney's lawyers had told Proactive not to contact him, said Mr Mill.
Rooney replied: "Before Mr Stretford was basically sacked from the
company, nobody explained he was going to be sacked and that they could
still do things for me.'

Amid a lot of dry, technical submissions this morning, there were a
few light touches in court. Counsel and the judge needed to know how
much the Croxteth-born player earns in total - but the figure could not
be disclosed to the press and public.

Asked to provide the amount, Rooney produced a piece of paper from
inside his jacket and passed it to Mr Mill, who seemed to gaze at it
for several seconds before passing it on to Judge Brendan Hegarty QC.
The 'vast majority' of his earnings were from his contract with
Manchester United, said Mr Mill.

But a sizeable proportion comes from the four sponsorship deals he
has with Coca-Cola, Nike, EA Sports and the new addition of Tiger Beer.

The court heard that Rooney's manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, extends
his famous attention to detail over 'all aspects" of players' lives and
had specified Rooney could have no more than five sponsorship deals.

'It is based on what my manager tells me,' replied Rooney, whose wife Coleen will not be giving evidence.

Rooney, dressed in a navy blue suit and thin black tie, said he was
'at the max' with what his sponsorship deals demand of him. That said,
he acknowledged there were opportunities stemming from this summer's
World Cup in South Africa which Mr Stretford could help him with.

Mr Mill said: 'Would you agree the World Cup holds immense potential
for you in terms of your brand value and commercial value?''Yeah,' replied Rooney.

Rooney's parents, Wayne senior and Jeanette, guided their young prodigy in the days of his first professional contracts. Rooney told the hearing today that if they had asked him to sign something, he would have done. But, giving evidence, his parents repeatedly answered barristers' questions with the replies 'I can't remember' or 'I don't know'.

Mrs Rooney, though saying the pair only ever sought the best for their son, said: 'I didn't understand contracts and I still don't understand contracts. It was all new to us. We didn't understand anything. I am not good with contracts. I don't understand contracts.'

Under cross-examination, she added that the Rooneys did not think of their son as a 'hotshot' - just that they wanted the very best for him. 'Wayne's a grown man now so it's got nothing to do with me.'

Rooney's father said in the days before their boy signed with Everton, agents were offering the 16-year-old more than £100,000 as a signing-on fee.